The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-27
WIDEN Huntingdon Street.

! ?
! The resolution of Alderman Duncan tC
widen Huntingdon street between Abercorr
and Dlayton streets should receive prompt
attention and favorable action from The
! City Council. The Committee on Streets
and Lanes is now considering it, and its re
port is looked for with great deal of in
| terest
The street can be widened now at a com
paratively small expense. The longer the
proposed Improvement is delayed the more
it will cost, because land in that locality is
steadily increasing in value.
Huntingdon street is quite narrow between
the points named in Alderman Duncan's
resolution. The reason is that the Savan.
nah Hospital, when it was erected over
seventy years ago, was almost mile from
the built up portion of the city. There was
great common and forest of pines be-
tween it aud what was then the town.
When Huntingdon street was laid out, many
years after the hospital was located, no no
tice was taken of the fact that the hospital
eneroached upon it to a very considerable
extent. II was probably considered that
the encroachment was a matter of no i'm
portance, as no one thought, perha ps, that
the city would be built out that far, and
there were good reasons for thinking that
it would not grow in that direction.
These reasons were that there was an exten-
sive swamp in the vicinity, and there We're
two cemeteries almost adjoining the hos
pital grounds.
1t is impossible to tell, however in what
direction city will grow, and those who
managed this city's affairs half d century
ago were as much mistaken in that respect
as the authorities of other cities have been
with respect 10 the same question. Within
the last ten years the locality which in the
early days was regarded as the least attract
i've and promising OF all the localities about
the city for the erection of dwellings, has be-
come the most popular, and it is now the
site of very many of the citys hand
soonest residences.
OF course if those who located Hunting
don street could have peered into the future
they would not have made such a serious
mistake. The mistake was made, however.
and the time has come to correct it as far as
it is possible to do so. The proposition is to
take strip twenty-three feet wide from
the lots opposite the hospital and add it to
the street. The hospital is not only very
handsome structure, but it is a noble charity
Its benefactions at home and abroad are
well known, and although managed by a
private corporation it is in all essential
particulars a public institution. Its doors
are never closed to the sick and those who
are penniless are as certain of careful and
skillful treatment as are those who are able
to command every luxury.
The narrow street, while it may not lessen
the usefulness of the hospital at present,
may do so to a very considerable extent in
the near future. Tall buildings may be
erected upon the opposite lots, thus pre-
venting in some degree the free entrance of
sunlight and the southern breezs into the
building. OF course if tall buildings are
erected on the southern side of the street
they WILL when ID is widened, obstruct the
rays of the sun and the breeze, but not to
such an extent as if the street remains as
narrow as at present
The Aldermen now have an opportunity to
widen the street, and it they fail to do so
they will make as great mistake as did
their predecessors who laid it out